TOMS RIVER — Michael Ritacco was the face of the Toms River school system.

In the nearly 40 years he worked for the regional school district, Ritacco worked his way up from a fifth- and sixth-grade teacher to become one of the state’s most visible and powerful superintendents.

But today, flanked by his attorneys in a federal courtroom in Trenton, Ritacco admitted he used his powers to bilk the school district for eight years by arranging inflated insurance contracts and accepting nearly $2 million from those bloated charges as kickbacks.

Ritacco pleaded guilty to mail fraud and conspiracy to impede and impair the Internal Revenue Service, two of the 22 charges in his indictment. U.S. District Judge Joel Pisano set July 12 for sentencing, when the former educator faces as much as 14 years in prison.

"He was the long-time superintendent in the fourth-largest school district in New Jersey," U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman said after the hearing. "There’s no question the scope of his authority and the respect he commanded in the town enabled him to get away with a very brazen, long-lasting and huge scheme for a decade."

Normally an energetic and charismatic man comfortable with giving orders, Ritacco, 64, of Seaside Park, was subdued today as he stood in a dark business suit taking instructions from his attorneys and answering question after question posed Pisano and Assistant U.S. Attorney Dustin Chao.

To most questions, Ritacco softly answered "yes" or yes, your honor."

With that series of one- or two-word answers, Ritacco laid out the scheme he concocted with two insurance brokers, Frank Gartland and Frank Cotroneo, and another Toms River school official, Frank D’Alonzo.

Just days before his trial, he told Pisano he approved a workers’ compensation insurance contract inflated by nearly $600,000 and received hundreds of thousands of dollars from those excess charges.

He said he gave Gartland enormous commissions, from which the broker paid for gifts for people close to Ritacco, including $20,000 in college tuition for the relative of a district employee.

Ritacco said he and the others used middlemen, shell companies, fake consulting contracts and third-party payments to hide the bribes. To conceal the large sums of money, he filed false income tax returns from 2004 to 2006 and conspired with Gartland to evade federal taxes from 2002 to 2010.

Jerome Ballarotto, an attorney for Ritacco, said the behavior was a "snapshot" of Ritacco, not a depiction of who he truly is.

"No one will deny he has done so many wonderful things," Balloratto said after court. "Sometimes good people do bad things. This is a classic example. We may never know why."

The agreement calls for Ritacco to forfeit $1 million as well as his Mercedes-Benz and $8,000 in cash authorities seized when he was arrested in October 2010. He also will have to pay taxes, interest and penalties on the money he hid from the federal government, which will amount to more than $1 million, Fishman and his attorney said.

As superintendent for 18 years, Ritacco oversaw a district of 2,000 employees, 18,000 students and a $195 million budget. The school board even named its new 3,500-seat concert and sport arena after him.

He retired from his $234,000 job the night of his arrest, and a year later the school board stripped his name from the arena.

The plea comes three days after Gartland, 70, of Baltimore admitted he helped arrange the kickbacks to Ritacco. Gartland was scheduled to be tried with Ritacco on Monday, but the insurance broker initially sought to have the cases separated, claiming the payments were not bribes.

The new schools superintendent, Frank Roselli, said the district made many changes to its insurance procurement procedures since Ritacco’s arrest and plans to seek reimbursement for its losses.

"We are hopeful that while we are aggressively pursuing all avenues of recovery and restitution for any misappropriated public funds, that we can now also move forward as a community with a renewed focus on the betterment of the district." Roselli said.